Article ID: 10we210
Zirconium was loaded onto orange waste, a cheap and available agricultural waste material, to investigate the feasibility of its utilization for phosphorus recovery from secondary effluent of piggery wastewater. Phosphorus removal using zirconium-loaded saponified orange juice residue (Zr-SOJR) gel increased with increasing solid/liquid ratio. Phosphate adsorption was found to be very efficient at pH 2-6. The secondary effluent was treated in a column packed with Zr-SOJR gel, which attained a dynamic adsorption capacity of 1.06 mol-P/kg. The phosphorus adsorbed on the column was successfully eluted as pre-concentrated phosphorus with a small amount of 0.2 M NaOH. Throughout the elution process, zirconium was not leaked from the adsorption gel. The solution obtained after elution had high concentrations of potassium and phosphorus, which was precipitated as potassium-magnesium-phosphate with the addition of magnesium.
